Following a hard-fought Round 3 clash against North Melbourne, Damian Truslove reflected on his side’s performance with a focus on growth and consistency.

While the result didn’t go the Blues way in an 11-point defeat, there were further signs a new-look group is building in the right direction.

The team’s focus will now shift to 17 April taking on Collingwood at IKON Park after next week’s competition-wide bye. With a valuable block of time to reset and refine key areas, they’ll be looking to turn promising signs into a complete performance.

On key takeaways from the game:

“There were plenty of positives, the second quarter was disappointing where they got a run on there.

“We fought the game out till to the end, which was a lot of credit to the boys, but there were some areas we’ve got to work in our game. I think we are certainly heading in the right direction and there were some good performances by individuals.”

On taking positives from the last quarter, with the Blues’ next game to come in a fortnight against Collingwood:

“I was really pleased with the last quarter. I thought our contest work and our ball movement late when we challenged them late in the last quarter was good.

“We just have to finish it off with our set shots, we were +4 for scoring shots but we probably missed too many easy shots on goal – we’ll get to work in that area.”

On individual standouts:

“I think Liam Reidy in the ruck is in really good form - his ability to try and get the team going forward is great. Flynn Young is another one who is in fantastic form up forward.”

On where the focus shifts to heading into the bye:

“We’ll look at all areas of our game, we will start with our defence and some areas of our defence we need to keep working on which we will try to improve on in that two-week block.

“Also some of our decisions with ball in hand is an area we can certainly address.”